1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to small automotive vehicles, and more particularly to apparatus for increasing the traction of the vehicle drive wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lawn and garden tractors, all-terrain vehicles, and similar off-road vehicles enjoy widespread popularity. One reason for the popularity of lawn and garden tractors is that they can be equipped with a wide variety of accessories and attachments. Snow throwers, rotary brushes, and lawn mowers are typical attachments. Large model tractors can be equipped with scraper blades.
Blowing or plowing snow, however, presents a problem for lawn and garden tractors. Because of their relatively small diameter drive wheels and light weight, the tractors can get stuck rather easily in deep snow. To solve that problem, it is known to put chains on the drive wheels in winter. Putting chains on tires is a tedious job, especially when the weather is cold. Removing the chains is not much easier.
It is also known to add large weights to the drive wheels of lawn and garden tractors. That expedient is a time consuming, difficult, and even dangerous chore. The wheel weights are used in combination with two or more long bolts. The bolts are inserted through holes in the wheel rim from the inside of the rim such that the bolt shanks extend outwardly from the outside of the rim. Because of the thin wall of the rim and the clearance around the bolt shanks, the bolts tilt downwardly by gravity unless supported by an external force.
To attach the wheel weight, a person must slip holes in the weight over the bolts. That is very difficult to do. The person must first lift and hold the weight, which can weigh as much as 40 to 50 pounds, while he simultaneously tries to align the weight holes with the bolts. The procedure requires that he use his legs to help hold the weight with one hand as he maneuvers the bolts with the other hand. After the bolts are initially inserted into the weight holes, the person must push the wheel weight over the bolts toward the wheel. Doing so invariably pushes the bolts in the same direction. To prevent bolt motion, the person must reach with one hand around the inside of the wheel to hold the bolts in place while he tries to push the wheel weight with his leg, knee, or other hand. Resting often, he ultimately is able to get one bolt all the way through its hole in the weight. In the meantime, the second bolt has pushed at least partially out of its hole in the rim. The person must therefore push that bolt back through the weight, again by reaching behind the wheel with one hand while holding the weight with the other hand or a leg. Finally, after considerable effort and time, both bolts are properly in place through the weight. Nuts are tightened on the bolt ends, and the tractor is ready for operation. In spring, the weights are removed, only to have to be laboriously reinstalled the next winter.
Thus, a need exists for improvements in tractor wheel weights.